Select Board Talks Vineyard Wind At Civic League's Summer Forum

The Select Board hinted at possible litigation against Vineyard Wind and defended the Good Neighbor Agreement during a public forum hosted by the Nantucket Civic League on Monday.

“I'm not going to speak about specifics in terms of strategy because it may involve litigation, which does not happen in the public space, but suffice to say, we're not done with Vineyard Wind, and I'll leave it at that,” Select Board member Brooke Mohr said. “The things we highlight in terms of accountability are the lighting system, communications, having a debris response plan. These are the things that we are going to be advocating for specifically, both in the public, by whatever means we have available to us.”

Mohr’s comments strongly suggest that the Town is at least considering legal action against Vineyard Wind.

Mohr reiterated her belief that the $10.5 million settlement received from GE Vernova for the offshore wind turbine blade failure that littered Nantucket’s shores with debris last summer was good for the island and suggested that there will be more updates on efforts to hold Vineyard Wind accountable “imminently.”

Some locals, including the anti-offshore wind activist group ACK for Whales, have criticized the settlement and the terms it imposes on the Town, which include preventing further suits against Vineyard Wind for the blade failure specifically.

The Town maintains that blocking future suits against Vineyard Wind was a necessary part of any agreement, as such suits would eventually lead back to GE Vernova anyway.

Mohr also said that the GE Vernova settlement sets an important precedent for the offshore wind industry at large.

“It also creates a precedent in the industry, which hopefully is a hard lesson for the industry in terms of: ‘let's be careful up front, so this doesn't happen again,’” she said.

The Select Board also spoke about the “Good Neighbor Agreement.” The agreement, signed in August 2020, provides the town with cash in exchange for its support of the offshore wind project and other concessions, some of which have yet to be realized. It has drawn intense criticism from local groups, but the Select Board has rejected calls to withdraw from the agreement.

“There's a lot of talk of ‘cancel the Good Neighbor Agreement, that'll be better,’ and that would not be better. The Good Neighbor Agreement is one of the only documents we have. It's a contract. They are responsible to do the things they've said they'll do in that contract. So that's good for us,” Select Board vice chair Matt Fee said. “Some of the talk is like, ‘if you cancel it, then you can sue.’ Well, everyone that has opposed this and sued has come up against the states and the feds, and they've lost.”

Questioners also pushed the Select Board on other offshore wind developments at the forum Monday morning, which the Civic League hosts every summer.

“Our appeal of SouthCoast Wind is indicative of the learnings we had from the very first offshore wind farm on the East Coast,” Mohr said. "We're dealing with it differently, absolutely. We decided to appeal it. We are very concerned about the cumulative impact of a 1,000+ wind turbines offshore.”

The Select Board also addressed questions on efforts to clean up debris at Tom Nevers, which are progressing slowly, litter along Madaket Road, septic loans, and the implementation of a Town Council form of government on the island.